Write for Eight Hundred Words

We want to hear, and publish, your stories!

We want to give you a place to publish your stories and send your words out into the world (and, if it helps, add another line to your resume). We believe that writers grow the most by reading and working with other writers, so your submission will be an important part of the glue that holds this community together.

How this will work:

Read our guidelines below, and if your idea meets them, fill out the form at the bottom of the page. In the "message" section, pitch us your story! We want to know the main idea behind the piece you plan to write for us.

Once we receive your pitch, we'll notify you within 2-4 weeks of whether or not it's a good fit for Eight Hundred Words. (If it's not, we'll tell you why, and work with you to maybe shift the pitch to be more our style or encourage you to submit another piece.)

If we accept your pitch, we'll send you our submission guidelines and, if needed, work with you to edit it to adhere to our brand.

Once the piece is polished and ready, we'll schedule a day to publish it, and feature it in The Eight Hundred Monthly.

Here's what we want in a story:

Nonfiction essays

Personal experiences with writing, publishing, professional rejection, critic, success, and other aspects of the writing life.

Stories that answer the questions: How did you become a writer? What is the best writing advice you've ever received, and why? What kind of experiences have you had in trying to get published? What does being a writer mean to you? What's the hardest part of being a writer?

Here's what we don't want in a story:

Anything too personal, random life events, stories unrelated to the life of a writer. Due to the nature of this community, we want to keep our blogs focused on the life of a writer/creative that could help and encourage other writers/creatives.

Any genre outside of nonfiction.

Overtly religious stories. We want this to be an inclusive place for writers of any and all religious backgrounds.

Although we encourage you to write your own weekly 800 words about whatever topic you like, we’d like to publish content that is helpful for the other writers in this community.